"One-Way Ticket"

Sauciest exponent of rugged individualism is John M. Nichols, president of small First National Bank of Englewood, Ill. which boasts 100% liquidity (cash & Government bonds). When breezy Banker Nichols heard last year that National Bank of Commerce of Houston, Tex. was 80% liquid, he wrote to RFChairman Jesse Jones who controls the Houston bank: "Atta boy. Keep up the good work. At the rate you are going it won't be long before we are both 100%. While you are crooning the rest of the bankers into supporting floundering industry, you and I can pull for shore. The idea is a honey."

Banker Nichols' pet New Deal aversion is Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. His bank is the only one of 6,000 Federal Reserve members which has never paid an FDIC assessment. Last week Banker Nichols received a letter from Comptroller of the Currency J. F. T. O'Connor reminding him that the deposit insurance law becomes permanent June 30. Offering Comptroller O'Connor his compliments and a "one-way ticket to Dante's Inferno," Banker Nichols replied:

"You and your political colleagues will never live to see the day that you can saddle our depositors and stockholders with the unlimited contingent liability incorporated in the permanent Federal Deposit Insurance Act. ... I wouldn't trust a single one of you any farther than I could throw a bull by the tail. If you think you have an inch of ground to stand on, cut out the shadow-boxing and get this case before the U. S. Supreme Court. I'll wager it will pluck your FDIC so close that, in comparison to its nudity, Hugh Johnson's defeathered Blue Eagle would look as if it were all dressed up in a raccoon coat."

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